"Writing is how I stay immortal": How a passion to share led Allison Hong Merrill to win

Allison Hong Merrill

Winner, Sandra Carpenter Prize for Creative Nonfiction

Allison Hong Merrill’s creative nonfiction entry, “Grafted Mandarin” reached the longlist of the First Pages Prize 2020 and was selected as one of seven contenders for the inaugural ‘Sandra Carpenter Prize for Creative Nonfiction’ by an American writer identifying as a woman. Sandra was an early champion of the First Pages Prize, served on the board and remains a cherished and much-missed friend, editor, and gifted writer of works about place and identity and belonging. We’re absolutely thrilled to see Allison win this prize and hear more about her lifelong passion to share her shining spirit through writing.

Synopsis:

Nineteen-year-old Taiwanese Mormon girl, Allison Hong, meets twenty-year-old rebellious American Mormon missionary, Cameron Chastain, in Taipei and elopes with him to his hometown in Texas when she is twenty-two. Sixteen months into their marriage, one day Allison goes home to their apartment and discovers that during her two-hour absence Cameron has moved everything out, cut off all services, withdrawn all the money in their bank account, and served her divorce papers. From a powerless, abandoned immigrant bride to a confident woman in command of her own destiny, “Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops” (new title for “Grafted Memoir”) tells the story of how Allison’s choice to break the Chinese cultural expectation for women to submit to men’s will allows her to create her own path.

Congratulations, Allison, on reaching this year’s longlist of the First Pages Prize AND winning the Sandra Carpenter Prize. What was your inspiration for writing your memoir entry “Grafted Mandarin”?

I’m a Taiwanese immigrant. I came to the U.S. as a twenty-two-year-old university student. My English was so bad then, I had to record all the classes and then listen to the tape every night. Three years later, I met an American young man, a fellow student at Brigham Young University in Utah, and married him. Together we have three sons.

I was content with and grateful for my blessed life, even though I had no friends besides my husband. Every night after my boys went to bed, I rearranged furniture in the house because I had nothing else to do. One night I asked my husband to help me move a couch from the basement to the second floor. He asked, “Didn’t you just move it from the play room to the living room the other day?” I explained I was moving it again because I was bored. To which he said, “Why don’t you start a blog then?”

This was back in 2005. I didn’t know what a blog was, but I didn’t rearrange furniture the next night, or the next. I started blogging. I wrote about my childhood memories, in English, because I wanted to share them with my sons when they were old enough to read. In a way, I wanted to help them remember their Chinese roots through my writing. More than that, I wanted to help them know me on a deeper level through my personal history. My memoir will be around after I pass on to the next life. For a selfish reason, writing is how I stay immortal. 

What were you doing when you heard you'd won the SC Prize for Creative Nonfiction?

I was in a meeting when Dr. Kezia Carpenter called, so I missed it. She texted me and asked me to call her back. I got out of the meeting and went to my closet to change out of my meeting clothes when I called Kezia back. When she told me I had won the Sandra Carpenter Prize for Creative Nonfiction, I was standing naked in my closet!

On the phone, Dr. Kezia Carpenter’s voice sounded like liquid gold when she said, “You’re the first winner of the Sandra Carpenter Prize for Creative Nonfiction!” I thought she meant, “We believe in your work.” “Keep telling your story.” “Your voice matters.” And at that moment, I knew that’s why I can’t stop myself from writing. Deep down, I long for that human connection where my written words reach a reader, wave at her, and she waves back. I could live in this moment forever!

What's your process or writing ritual?

My daily ritual : First thing every morning, I study the scriptures and say my prayers.

My writing ritual : I map out a storyboard and write a query letter before working on a story. It usually takes me a week to map out a storyboard. But it’s worth the time. Inspirations often come during the actual writing process, so I change things around in the narrative. But overall, I write with more confidence with the guidance of a blueprint.

What are the next steps for “Grafted Mandarin”?

Four months after I entered the First Pages Prize, She Writes Press offered me a book contract for my memoir. I accepted it. The pub date of my book, now titled Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops, is September 21, 2021.

What else are you working on?

I’m working on a Chinese family saga that starts with a matrilocal marriage in 1885 and ends with an interracial marriage in 1995, during which the central government hid a secret from this family, cursed to always lose their children.

Another project I’m working on is a novel about a twenty-four-year-old woman who learns that she is the heir to the throne of an ancient Chinese imperial court.

Allison, on your Instagram and social media you often share inspiration to never give up. Any small story to illustrate your spirit to persevere?

People say that writing is hard, it's especially true for me. I'm writing in English as a foreign language, my struggles in the writing/publishing journey feel impossible sometimes. For the first ten years of my writing life, I was going nowhere. Almost every day I contemplated giving up. And I did. I quit writing to train for marathons. I stopped writing to become a model and an actress. I even went back to school to get another degree. But no matter what I did, I always returned to writing. 

Some say that writing is a calling, it's definitely true for me. I have stories to tell. I have messages to share. It's painful not to. 

For my memoir, Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops, I received 128 rejections, excluding the no-response type of rejection. It got so bad that whenever I saw a new email from an agent or a publisher in my inbox, I immediately assumed it was a "no." I was right every time. 

Writing is hard! 

But I've chosen this path. I felt that, after having agonized for years to finish writing a book, I'd passed the Point of No Return. So I kept showing up at my desk every morning when it was cold in the house and dark outside the window. I would write, write, write, and sob. I didn't know where I was heading with my stubbornness. 

Now I can testify that perseverance does pay off. It really does. Don't give up! I don't particularly like to include cliché in my work, but I have to right now: If I can do it, anyone can. It's true!

Thank you, Allison, we are incredibly excited for your upcoming publication and other writing projects! Find out more about the Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund and its aims here. Follow Allison on the links below.

Bio:

In a brick house overlooking Utah Lake, a Taiwanese-American lady­­­­––Allison Hong Merrill–– writes. She writes in both Chinese and English, both fiction and creative nonfiction, which means she spends a lot of time looking up words on dictionary.com. Visit her at her website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.